TOKYO -- Japan has raised its assessment of the accident at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant to the worst rating on an international scale, putting the
disaster on par with the 1986 Chernobyl explosion, the Japanese nuclear
regulatory agency said on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan, meanwhile, called on the country to rebuild. While acknowledging the
decision to raise the severity of the nuclear accident at Fukushima to the
highest level, he took pains in a nationally televised speech on Tuesday evening
to say that the reactors were being stabilized and to emphasize that radiation
releases are declining.